All these exciting stories and MORE
in this week's issue of CONSPIRACY JOURNAL!
~ And Now, On With The Show! ~

YOU CAN LEARN THE
MAGICAL WAYS OF THE KAHUNA - SO
POWERFUL ARE THEIR SUPERNATURAL POWERS THAT IT IS SAID THEY CAN BRING
BACK THE DEAD!

KAHUNA
POWER - By Timothy Green Beckley

Twenty odd years ago paranormalist Timothy Green Beckley toured the
Hawaiian islands to seek out answers to its deepest mysteries. He spoke
with the native Hawaiians about phantom animals, supernatural powers,
the existence of invisible beings, helpful spooks, playful spirits, the
volcano Goddess Pele who appears in physical form before an eruption as
well as the local version of UFOs or ghost lights.

Now after a second trip to the Islands, an updated version is being
made available to those who wish to enter a seldom glimpsed society and
to understand a spiritual system which is still virtually unknown to
the outside world. By practicing the ancient occult art of Kahuna
Magic, it is said that an individual can attract good health, love,
self esteem, power and enjoy the best things in life.

CONTENTS
OF KAHUNA POWER INCLUDES:Ghosts and Gods of Hawaii Helpful Spooks Good Spirits and Guardian Angels
Dire Warnings From the Goddess Chants to Avoid Possession, Evil
and Misfortune Animals and the Spirit World Ritualistic Burials The Menehune - Leprechauns of
the Pacific

It is said that the powerful Kahuna can cure almost any disease and
ailment through proper use of herbs which they cultivate. Communicate
at will with higher dimensions and the departed souls of loved ones
whom they are able to contact for personal guidance and assistance in
all matters of everyday life. Predict and sometimes control the course
of future events. After gaining the confidence of the local Kahuna
practitioners author Tim Beckley and psychics Maria Carta and Penny
Melis were permitted to enter a seldom glimpsed society and to
understand a spiritual system which still offers considerable appeal to
those living in today's world. Kahuna Power contains
the chants, the prayers and the documented legends that could improve YOUR life if you let it.You
can order this book now for the special price of ONLY $17.95plus $5.00
for
Shipping!

AND, if you order right now, we will send you a VERY SPECIAL FREE GIFT
- a free audio cassette of authentic ﻿Hawaiian
chants.
You get this cassette for being among the first to
order
this incredible book.

So don't delay, order your copy
of Kahuna Power
today for only $17.95 plus
$5.00 for shipping -
A GREAT PRICE!

In This Incredible Issue:
The FeeJee Mermaid and the History of
This Elusive Creature
12 Most Popular Cryptids
Cannibalism: Who's For Dinner?
The Psychic World of Amelia Earhart
PLUS: Explore Georgia's Guidestones
The Lore of the Werewolf
Ancient Aliens-ETs or Gods?
And much more, including book, music,
and movie reviews,
exhibit and
conference listings!

A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime
director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend
habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of
disloyalty.

Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after
the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in
military prisons.

Hoover wanted President Harry S. Truman to proclaim the mass arrests
necessary to “protect the country against treason, espionage and
sabotage.” The F.B.I would “apprehend all individuals potentially
dangerous” to national security, Hoover’s proposal said. The arrests
would be carried out under “a master warrant attached to a list of
names” provided by the bureau.

The names were part of an index that Hoover had been compiling for
years. “The index now contains approximately twelve thousand
individuals, of which approximately ninety-seven per cent are citizens
of the United States,” he wrote.

“In order to make effective these apprehensions, the proclamation
suspends the Writ of Habeas Corpus,” it said.

Habeas corpus, the right to seek relief from illegal detention, has
been a fundamental principle of law for seven centuries. The Bush
administration’s decision to hold suspects for years at
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has made habeas corpus a contentious issue
for Congress and the Supreme Court today.

The Constitution says habeas corpus shall not be suspended “unless when
in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.”
The plan proposed by Hoover, the head of the F.B.I. from 1924 to 1972,
stretched that clause to include “threatened invasion” or “attack upon
United States troops in legally occupied territory.”

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush issued an
order that effectively allowed the United States to hold suspects
indefinitely without a hearing, a lawyer, or formal charges. In
September 2006, Congress passed a law suspending habeas corpus for
anyone deemed an “unlawful enemy combatant.”

But the Supreme Court has reaffirmed the right of American citizens to
seek a writ of habeas corpus. This month the court heard arguments on
whether about 300 foreigners held at Guantánamo Bay had the same
rights. It is expected to rule by next summer.

Hoover’s plan was declassified Friday as part of a collection of
cold-war documents concerning intelligence issues from 1950 to 1955.
The collection makes up a new volume of “The Foreign Relations of the
United States,” a series that by law has been published continuously by
the State Department since the Civil War.

Hoover’s plan called for “the permanent detention” of the roughly
12,000 suspects at military bases as well as in federal prisons. The
F.B.I., he said, had found that the arrests it proposed in New York and
California would cause the prisons there to overflow.

So the bureau had arranged for “detention in military facilities of the
individuals apprehended” in those states, he wrote.

The prisoners eventually would have had a right to a hearing under the
Hoover plan. The hearing board would have been a panel made up of one
judge and two citizens. But the hearings “will not be bound by the
rules of evidence,” his letter noted.

The only modern precedent for Hoover’s plan was the Palmer Raids of
1920, named after the attorney general at the time. The raids, executed
in large part by Hoover’s intelligence division, swept up thousands of
people suspected of being communists and radicals.

Previously declassified documents show that the F.B.I.’s “security
index” of suspect Americans predated the cold war. In March 1946,
Hoover sought the authority to detain Americans “who might be
dangerous” if the United States went to war. In August 1948, Attorney
General Tom Clark gave the F.B.I. the power to make a master list of
such people.

Hoover’s July 1950 letter was addressed to Sidney W. Souers, who had
served as the first director of central intelligence and was then a
special national-security assistant to Truman. The plan also was sent
to the executive secretary of the National Security Council, whose
members were the president, the secretary of defense, the secretary of
state and the military chiefs.

In September 1950, Congress passed and the president signed a law
authorizing the detention of “dangerous radicals” if the president
declared a national emergency. Truman did declare such an emergency in
December 1950, after China entered the Korean War. But no known
evidence suggests he or any other president approved any part of
Hoover’s proposal.

Another year has come and gone and a new year is impatiently waiting in
the wings, ready to take on the joys and tears that await in the coming
months.
Humans throughout the centuries have attached great importance to any
new beginning or change - New Years was deemed especially significant
due to the fact that many believed a new year meant we all had a chance
to throw off the sadness and sins of the previous year and have a fresh
start.

Because of this, numerous customs and superstitions have arisen to
insure that the new year gets off on the right foot. Many of the
superstitions associated with New Years bear the common theme that
activities engaged in on that day set the pattern for the year to come.
Others have to do with warding off evil spirits or attracting luck.

Because January 1st is the first day of the new year, we have drawn a
connection between what we do on that day and our fate throughout the
rest of the year. Here are some of the ways we attempt to guarantee a
good outcome through our acts on that portentous first day:

Avoid breaking things, crying and wailing on the first day of the year,
if you don't want to continue the pattern for the entire year.

Empty pockets or empty cupboards on New Years Eve portend a year of
poverty.

If the first person to cross the threshold of a house after midnight on
New Years is a dark-haired man and he carries a shovel full of coal,
then a year of good luck will follow.

Its bad luck to let a fire go out on New Year's Eve.

You could ensure yourself good fortune by draining the last dregs from
a bottle of drink on New Years!

The Weather: The direction of wind during sunrise on New Year morning
foretells the coming year. Wind from south foretells fine weather and
prosperous times ahead, wind from north foretells bad weather, wind
from east foretells famine and natural calamities and wind from west
foretells plenty of milk and fish for all but death of a person of
great national importance. No wind means joy and prosperity throughout
the year.

Loud Noise: Make as much noise as possible at midnight to scare away
evil spirits.

Do not let money, jewelry, precious items or other invaluable things
leave your home on New Year Day. Do not pay loans and bills or lend
things to anybody, if you do not want to show just-entered fortune the
way to leave during the year. People go to the extent of not taking out
garbage or even not dusting their carpets on this day to ensure that
nothing goes out of home during the year.

Letting the Old Year Out: At midnight, all the doors of a house must be
opened to let the old year escape unimpeded. He must leave before the
New Year can come in, says popular wisdom, so doors are flung open to
assist him in finding his way out.

To dance in the open air, especially round a tree, on New Year's Day is
declared to ensure luck in love and prosperity and freedom from ill
health during the coming twelve months.

Children born on New Year's Day bring great fortune and prosperity to
all the household.

On New Year's Day if, on rising, a girl should look out of her bedroom
window and see a man passing by, she may reckon to be married before
the year is finished.

Clocks should be wound up immediately the New Year begins in order to
endow the house with good fortune, while all daily cleaning and dusting
should be completed early in the day of December 31 in order to avoid
the danger of sweeping good luck from the house.

Breakage: Avoid breaking things on that first day lest wreckage be part
of your year. Also, avoid crying on the first day of the year lest that
activity set the tone for the next twelve months

New Clothes: Wear something new on January 1 to increase the likelihood
of your receiving more new garments during the year to follow.

Work: Make sure to do -- and be successful at -- something related to
your work on the first day of the year, even if you don't go near your
place of employment that day. Limit your activity to a token amount,
though, because to engage in a serious work project on that day is very
unlucky.

Black-Eyes Peas: A tradition common to the Southern part of the United
States says that the eating of black-eyed peas on New Year's Day will
attract both general good luck and money in particular to the one doing
the dining

A person who lives alone might place a lucky item or two in a basket
that has a string tied to it, and then place the basket just outside
the front door before midnight. After midnight, the lone celebrant
hauls in his catch, being careful to bring the item across the doorjamb
by pulling the string rather than by reaching out to retrieve it and
thus breaking the plane of the threshold.

Nothing Goes Out: Nothing -- absolutely nothing, not even garbage -- is
to leave the house on the first day of the year. If you have presents
to deliver on New Year's Day, leave them in the car overnight. Don't so
much as shake out a rug or take the empties to the recycle bin. Some
people soften this rule by saying it's okay to remove things from the
home on New Year's Day, provided that something else has been brought
in first.

Just as the clock strikes twelve the head of the house should open the
door in order to allow the Old Year to pass out and the New Year to
come in.

Kissing at midnight: To ensure that those affections and ties will
continue throughout the next twelve months. To not do this would be to
set the stage for a year of coldness.

Stocking Up: The New Year must not be seen in with bare cupboards, lest
that be the way of things for the year. Larders must be topped up and
plenty of money must be placed in every wallet in the place to
guarantee a prosperous year.

Paying Off Bills: The new year should not be begun with the household
in debt, so checks should be written and mailed off prior to January
1st. Likewise, personal debts should be settled before the New Year
arrives.

First Footing: The first person to enter your home after the stroke of
midnight will influence the year you're about to have. Ideally, he
should be dark-haired, tall, and good-looking, and it would be even
better if he came bearing certain small gifts such as a lump of coal, a
silver coin, a bit of bread, a sprig of evergreen, and some salt.
Blonde and redhead first footers bring bad luck, and female first
footers should be shooed away before they bring disaster down on the
household.

First Footing: The first footer should knock and be let in rather than
just using a key. After greeting those in the house and dropping off
whatever small tokens of luck he has brought with him, he should make
his way through the house and leave by a different door than the one
through which he entered. No one should leave the premises before the
first footer arrives -- the first traffic across the threshold must be
headed in rather than striking out.

First footers must not be cross-eyed or have flat feet or eyebrows that
meet in the middle

Squint-eyed, flat-footed, or red-haired men bring bad luck If they are
first-footers, and so does a woman. But a man with a high instep, or
one who comes on a horse, is considered particularly lucky.

Have a safe and prosperous New Years.

-
WHAT IS MIND, NO MATTER DEPARTMENT -'Mind' Still A Medical Enigma

In 1995, debris from a burning church collapsed on Buffalo firefighter
Donny Herbert, depriving him of oxygen for six minutes and
consciousness for 10 years.

But in what has been described as a medical miracle, Herbert became
fully lucid a decade after that tragedy, defying a dim prognosis and
allowing him enough time to express love for his wife and four sons. He
died just as unexpectedly in May 2005, a month after re-awakening.

Herbert's experience evokes the question: Can the human mind provide
the power to will a man from a near-comatose state? Some experts
believe the mind is not only powerful, it isn't even "local" to the
body.

Dr. Larry Dossey, a physician and the former editor of a journal on
alternative medicine, has lectured worldwide on the power of the mind.
On his Web site, he goes even further, noting that Western medicine
doesn't prepare physicians for "miracles," even though most doctors
have witnessed the inexplicable. "Almost all physicians possess a
lavish list of strange happenings unexplainable by normal science," he
said.

The medical literature is replete with reports of tumors that have
vanished or patients who say they've floated away from their bodies.

But Dr. Kevin Tracey, director of the Feinstein Institute for Medical
Research in Manhasset, takes a more rational approach, noting that a
sharp difference exists between the lexicon of mystics and scientists,
even when they are witnessing the same phenomena. What some people may
deem miraculous is an issue in need of study to others.

"Science doesn't embrace mystical explanations. The basis of science is
explaining observations in reproducible ways," Tracey said. Reviving
after years in a near-vegetative state, he said, probably has a
rational explanation.

Rich Blake, author of the book "The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up", said a
Buffalo doctor had given Herbert an experimental medication in hopes of
reviving the firefighter. Doctors were unable to say whether the drugs
worked.

Blake, a financial magazine journalist in Manhattan, is the first
cousin of Linda Herbert, Donny's wife. He's also steeped in the lore of
Buffalo's Catholic community. For decades, residents have attributed
the inexplicable to Father Nelson Baker, a priest whom many say
performed -- and still performs -- medical miracles. Baker died 71
years ago.

At the nursing home where Herbert resided, Blake said many patients
have reported seeing Baker entering their rooms. Upon re-awakening,
Herbert told his wife that he, too, had seen the priest.

"To think that he could be in this stupor for 10 years and just start
talking and return to them, what way could you describe this other than
to say this was a miracle," Blake said.

Linda Herbert, he added, attributed much of her husband's reawakening
to his own willpower. "I don't want to overplay the miracle angle,"
Blake said, "because people can't pray for miraculous cures. They also
have to fight with their insurance companies, and work with their
doctors. But I do think miracles ... do happen every day. There are
things that have absolutely no explanation."

In November, Dr. Dirk De Ridder of University Hospital Antwerp in
Belgium wrote about a patient who had out-of-the-body experiences
during treatment for tinnitus, ringing in the ears. De Ridder's
research was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The ringing had defied medical and psychiatric treatments. So De Ridder
resorted to a maverick therapy that involved placing electrodes in the
area of the brain believed to be the ringing's source. An
out-of-the-body experience was elicited, De Ridder noted, each time a
specific brain region was stimulated.

The 63-year-old patient reported floating away from his body, viewing
De Ridder as he attempted to fix the ear problem. The ghostly state was
clocked as lasting about 17 seconds, each time.

Tracey describes the human brain as largely unexplored terrain, which
may help put into perspective why a near-comatose man can re-awaken
after a decade, or a patient can float away from his body. "We are
still inventing tools to study brain function," he said.

Daniel Perez wants to find
Bigfoot: 'It might be the biggest scientific discovery the world has
ever seen.'

The Center for Bigfoot Studies, like the creature itself, is not easy
to find. It hides amid the forest of homes and thickets of Christmas
lights on a quiet Riverside street.

No signs or monster-size tracks point the way, but those in the know
can pin it down to an upper floor of one unassuming house. There,
jammed inside a few small rooms, sits one of the nation's largest
repositories of Bigfoot lore.

Rows of books, stuffed filing cabinets, sculptures and plaster casts of
overgrown feet compete for space in a cluttered world dedicated to the
legendary hulking primate.

Daniel Perez, 44, is curator and director of the center, which doubles
as his home. It's not typical Bigfoot habitat, but he couldn't beat the
price. And for Perez it's the work, not the location, that matters.

"This isn't about finding some new species of butterfly in South
America which would have little impact on your life or mine," he said.
"If we ever find this, it might be the biggest scientific discovery the
world has ever seen."

Perez is no flake. He's a serious-minded, soft-spoken electrician who
let his hobby become his passion and now much of his life. He publishes
the monthly Bigfoot Times, circulation 760, and has traveled the
country investigating sightings and interviewing witnesses.

A recent newsletter reported a sighting from 1936 in Davistown, Pa. The
81-year-old witness told Perez she had seen an upright animal lurking
around her rural home on numerous occasions when she was a girl.

"He must have been 6 feet tall, dark brown, long arms and very hairy,"
she said. "Gosh, did we run across the fields into the house."

Another article is about two men's claims to have audio recordings of
Bigfoot's "breathing, teeth popping and growls."

"But our conclusion was that it was nothing more than wind," a local
Bigfoot researcher wrote.

Perez is a believer but also a skeptic.

Hoaxers have tried to con him, and promising leads have unraveled.
Critical evidence, such as a hefty ape-like skull allegedly found near
Bishop, has had a habit of disappearing. Yet there are the stories that
keep him going, the strikingly similar accounts of hairy, stinking,
bipedal animals stomping through forests from Canada to California to
Ohio.

Tales of ape men leading clandestine lives in the North American
backwoods go back centuries. Native Americans called them Sasquatches.
But the modern Bigfoot phenomenon really got its start in 1958, Perez
said, when workers began finding large footprints while building a road
in Oregon.

"Some guy took the story to the local newspaper, and the word 'Bigfoot'
was born," he said.

In 1986, Perez interviewed members of a six-man crew building a bridge
26 miles south of California's Mt. Whitney who reported seeing a large
upright creature that left 13-inch footprints in its wake.

"It scared the heebie-jeebies out of them," said Perez, who interviewed
the workers at the scene. "One guy told me it sounded like an elephant
trumpeting. Another said it was a bloodcurdling scream which resembled
a woman being tortured. These were serious, grown men with no reason to
lie. It was my first experience with multiple sightings. I was hooked
after that."

Actually, he was hooked before that.

Perez's pursuit of Bigfoot began at age 10 after he watched "The Legend
of Boggy Creek" at a Norwalk theater. The documentary-style film dealt
with a Bigfoot-like beast frightening rural Fouke, Ark.

"I thought it was just another monster movie, but it turned out to be
the paving stone to who I am today," he said. "I was curious but
skeptical."

He immediately went to the library and withdrew books about Bigfoot and
other creatures, including the Loch Ness monster. He wrote letters to
Bigfoot experts, who impressed him with their earnestness.

"It was almost like a science project for him," recalled his father,
Edward Perez. "It was something to keep him busy and enabled him to
figure out what's what."

The elder Perez questions the whole thing.

"Whenever the subject is broached, I ask him, 'Where are the bodies?
Why are there no bodies?' "

In 1979, Perez rushed with a friend to Hemet's Diamond Valley, chasing
reports that huge footprints had been found there. He and his friend
saw and measured the proof, he said. The prints were 17 inches long.

He started interviewing people who claimed to have seen Bigfoot. He dug
up newspaper clippings from as far back as 1889 reporting encounters
with the creature and other "wild men" of the woods. He researched
Native American stories of Sasquatch, Himalayan tales of the Yeti and
sightings of the Yowie in Australia.

"I understand that many people are ignorant of the data on the subject,
but this is more than just tabloid stuff," he said, picking up a cast
of a large footprint. "As you can see, it's very manlike. It walks like
us and has feet like us, but it's covered in hair and has gorilla-like
features. It could be a missing link."

Perez is writing a book about the Patterson-Gimlin film, a grainy
60-second movie purporting to show a large primate walking through
Bluff Creek in Northern California. It was shot by Robert Gimlin and
the late Roger Patterson.

The film, shot in 1967, still generates controversy. Believers say it's
the best evidence that Bigfoot exists. Others say it's the best proof
the whole thing is bogus. The doubters' case was bolstered when Bob
Hieronimus of Yakima, Wash., announced in 2004 that he was the film's
Bigfoot. He said Patterson offered him $1,000 to don a gorilla suit.

"Why they keep focusing on this film is beyond me," said Robert Kiviat,
producer of "World's Greatest Hoaxes: Secrets Finally Revealed," a Fox
Network show that investigated the film.

Kiviat, who appeared with the self-proclaimed hoaxer on MSNBC's
"Countdown With Keith Olbermann" when Hieronimus made his claim, said
most people laughed at the film. "It is essentially a few brief seconds
of what appears to be a man walking in a gorilla suit in the woods," he
said. "But I do believe there is a mysterious animal out there. We have
some hair, some DNA and some video and photographic evidence that is
tantalizing."

Perez doesn't buy the fraud story. He says Hieronimus could never fill
an 8-foot gorilla suit, and he says the suit has never been found.

He has analyzed the footage hundreds of times. He has enlarged it and
slowed it down. He points out what he sees as telling details of
authenticity.

"You can see the breasts on the subject. That tells us it is female,"
he said. "It would seem if you wanted to fake something, you wouldn't
put breasts on it, because it would seem outlandish. You can see the
buttocks and the spinal cord. Look how it walks. No human walks like
that. Superficially it looks like a man, but when you look closely,
it's clearly not."

Perez's views are largely supported by Jeffrey Meldrum, professor of
anthropology and anatomy at Idaho State University, who has studied
Bigfoot for more than a decade.

"Daniel is a very skilled investigator who goes after details and ties
up loose ends," he said. "Correlating evidence is very important in
this study."

Meldrum, an expert on primate morphology, says the hoax stories don't
hold up under scrutiny.

"If you watch the film as a student of anatomy, primates and
locomotion, you can see the movement of the shoulder blade under the
skin," he said. "I can see the calf muscles contract at the appropriate
moments. When anyone tries to replicate it in any way, it doesn't look
like a primate."

His theory?

"You can never be 100% sure of anything, but beyond a reasonable doubt
I am convinced it portrays a real animal," he said. "My working
hypothesis is they are a species of great ape restricted to the ground
but having an arboreal legacy. They would most likely be related to the
orangutans."

Meldrum said the lack of Bigfoot corpses is not a mystery given the
remote spots where they are believed to live as well as the dampness of
the forest and the acidic quality of forest soil, which encourages
decomposition.

Upstairs in his office, Perez plays the Patterson-Gimlin film on his
computer again and again.

He thinks as many as 100,000 Bigfoots could be roaming North America,
but he knows he may never find even one of them.

"A lot of early researchers thought we would solve the mystery in a few
years, but we haven't," he said. "I can't prove Bigfoot exists, but
either someone has been fabricating tracks for over a hundred years or
there is a real animal out there."

Author of the Haunted Liverpool series of books, Tom Slemen, has
written a special story for Formby Times and Conspiracy Journal readers.

There are said to be invisible ley-lines of earth energies, known to
the ancient peoples of Lancashire, that criss-cross Formby, and local
folklore suggests the existence of spectral beings that frequent these
old, unseen tracks.

The most prominent paranormal entity of this kind is Skriker – often
misspelled as ‘Striker’ – a huge, black, ghostly dog with fiery red
eyes that roams the Formby waterfront.

Some traditions maintain that he acts as a sentinel to something buried
beneath Formby dunes in the remote past. In 1999, baffling prehistoric
footprints of children, and unidentified dogs, were found on the Formby
foreshore.

The imprints had been made in the lee of an offshore sandbar up to
6,500 years ago.

In 1967, a retired man named Richard Lomax was bird-watching on Formby
beach when he spotted a woman burying something among the dunes.

Gripped with curiosity, Mr Lomax went and dug up the thing the lady had
buried as soon as she was out of sight. It was a small teak box, sealed
by two nails that had been driven through each corner of the lid. Mr
Lomax took the box home to his house near Little Altcar and prised it
open to reveal a small stone cross with a concentric ring around it,
rather like the design of a Celtic cross.

The birdwatcher decided he’d take it to his brother-in-law George – an
antique dealer – in the morning, to see what he made of the strange
find.

That night, Mr Lomax heard a dog snarling in his garden somewhere,
followed by the sounds of the animal scratching at his front door. The
following morning, Mr Lomax saw three long, black claw-marks in the
front door and, when he inspected these marks, they looked as if they’d
been scorched into the woodwork with a branding iron.

Lomax showed the stone cross to his brother-in-law George, and he
recoiled in horror and told him to get rid of the cross or he’d suffer
a long run of bad luck, for he had seen such crosses before, and they
were deemed to be cursed.

Mr Lomax was amused at George’s claims and believed he was just
superstitious.

However, on the following day, Richard Lomax was starting his car when
he realised he couldn’t feel the accelerator pedal. His right foot was
numb. It transpired that this was because of a tumour in his spine.
Then his sister died days later.

Even more misfortune followed, and Mr Lomax ended up hurrying back to
the spot where he had unearthed the strange artefact. He reasoned that
the previous owner of the accursed cross had probably buried it to
break its curse.

Not long afterwards, a huge black dog with red eyes was seen by many
people, sitting on the very spot where the cross was reburied.

There are some rare reports which show the Formby ‘Hell Hound’ in a
favourable light. For example, at Christmas 1977, a 13-year-old girl
went out onto the sands of Formby after a row with her parents, and
became stranded when the tide came rushing in.

She tried to make her way back to safety, but became trapped up to her
knees in the mud. The girl somehow managed to escape from the quagmire,
and crawled along the beach with the water crashing over her. She stood
up, and as she started to sink again, she saw an enormous black dog
standing about twenty feet away.

The girl instinctively scrambled towards the strange, oversized animal,
and as she did it turned and walked off towards dry land, unaffected by
the mud. The girl walked behind the hound in its tracks and the sand
beneath her feet felt solid. When she got to the dry shore the black
dog seemed to fade away into the twilight.

Three years later, the girl was walking along Formby beach during a
spectacular sunset, when she suddenly experienced a strange
inexplicable urge to visit a particular dune. When the girl reached the
dune she saw the same black dog that had saved her life three years
before. It sat looking out to sea, with red glowing eyes and a
phosphorescent glow around its muscular body. The mysterious hound
turned its head to gaze at her for a while, then looked seawards.
Seconds later it faded away.

That girl is now a woman and she strolls along Formby beach most
evenings, hoping to see the enigmatic black dog.

Is it a sentry, guarding some ancient talisman?

What is the story behind the stone cross and why does calamity strike
those who move it from the dunes?

A quick stroll up Main Street is enough to learn who this river town's
most famous resident is: His name is on signs, in shop windows and
restaurants, and there's even a museum devoted to him.

And the sculpture in the middle of town prominently depicts his
enormous wings and glowing red eyes.

More than 40 years after the first reported sighting of the mysterious
creature later dubbed "Mothman," residents here have embraced his
legend, helping to turn the town into a destination for people in
search of an offbeat tourism experience.

But while there's no local consensus on the veracity of the stories,
most agree that Mothman is good for business.

"It's helped the town, it's actually helped with business recruitment,"
said Ruth Finley, who owns the 106-year-old Lowe Hotel on Main Street
along with her husband. "People come because of Mothman and they stay
at the hotel, they go to the restaurants."

Every September, Point Pleasant hosts the weekend-long Mothman
Festival, which draws about 2,000 people a year to this town of roughly
4,500 at the confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio rivers.

Walking along Main Street, conventioneers can have their picture taken
near the statue, drink a "Mothman Frappachino" (advertised in a local
cafe window) and drop into the Mothman Museum, which convincingly bills
itself as the world's only such institution.

Inside, they can look over everything from handwritten eyewitness
accounts of Mothman sightings to voluminous newspaper clippings to
props from the 2002 Richard Gere film "The Mothman Prophecies," which
helped boost interest in the creature and Point Pleasant.

Jeremy Pitchford, an employee at the 2-year-old museum, said it's a
valuable repository for a side of Point Pleasant that few were willing
to even discuss until recently.

"This has been something that's been kind of suppressed, in a way," he
said. "A lot of people never knew that Point Pleasant had anything like
its own folklore."

The first sighting was reported on Nov. 15, 1966, by a group of people
in an area of town known as TNT, the site of a former World War II
munitions plant. Others later came forward to say they had seen a gray
creature about 7 feet tall with bright red eyes and wings like a bird.

The sightings ended abruptly on Dec. 15, 1967, the day of the collapse
of the Silver Bridge, which linked Point Pleasant to Ohio. Forty-six
people were killed, and ever since people have speculated on whether
the sightings were connected to the tragedy.

During the Mothman convention, tourists drive out to TNT hoping to
catch a glimpse of the creature, but usually have to settle for a more
prosaic version: the Mothman pizza made at Village Pizza.

A genuinely unique creation, the $10 pie depicts the fearsome creature
with eyes made of red and green peppers dotted by an olive pupil,
mushroom wings and a pepperoni body. It's such a classic that Bill Ward
knew he had to leave it on the menu when he bought the restaurant four
years ago.

"We sell a lot of them when the convention's in town," he said.

Even when it's not convention time, the town has its share of Mothman
visitors, including film crews. Recently, a crew shooting an episode
for the new A&E series "Paranormal State" was in town, and the Lowe
Hotel has hosted crews from as far away as Japan and Australia.

But some chafe at the notion that Point Pleasant is best-known for
reputed visits from a winged creature with glowing eyes. In fact, the
town is rich in real American history, from the Revolutionary War to
the era when steamboat traffic crowded the Ohio and Kanawha rivers.

"With all the history we have here, what do people come here for? That
darn Mothman," said Jack Fowler, executive director of the Point
Pleasant River Museum.

Located a few blocks down Main Street from the Mothman statue, the
river museum includes historical exhibits and archives on everything
from the steamboat trade to the 1967 Silver Bridge disaster. With plans
to expand and add an aquarium in partnership with Marshall University,
Mothman is distinctly out of place here.

Out of place, but not entirely absent: the river museum sells copies of
a book about Mothman.

"I always said there would never be anything about Mothman in this
museum," sighed Fowler. "But when the convention's happening, so many
people come in here and ask about it."

Although he's not keen on Mothman, Fowler has made his peace with the
creature's local backers. The river museum and the Mothman Museum have
a reciprocal relationship, directing curious visitors to each other's
exhibits. It's a way to let tourists see all sides of Point Pleasant,
Fowler and Pitchford say.

"The great thing is, it brings in people from all over," Finley said.
"They may come here for Mothman, but once they're here it's our
responsibility to show them why they should come back."

Russian police are hunting a "werewolf boy" - who snarls
and bites - after he escaped from a Moscow clinic just a day after
being rescued from the wild.

Doctors expressed shock saying he was found living with a pack of
wolves in a remote forest in the Kaluga region of central Russia.

"He's clearly dangerous to other people," said a police spokesman
yesterday.

"He's got typical wolf-like habits and behaviour.

"He has very strong and sharp teeth, which could really endanger
someone if he bites."

The boy looks about ten - but after tests conducted by Moscow medics,
they believe he maybe much older. They are puzzled because he appears
intelligent but does not seem to speak Russian or any other language.
It is suspected he has been running wild for many years.

Such cases are not uncommon in Russia where there have been regular
reports of 'Mowgli' children abandoned by their parents who are cared
for by animals. The boy moves around with his legs half bent, said Tvoi
Den newspaper. "He was running with wolves and searching for food with
them."

Villagers found this "wild creature" in a lair made of leaves and
sticks in freezing temperatures and told the police who named him
Lyokha, though his real identity is not known.

"He's dirty, hungry, and looked to have had a hard time," said the
police spokesman. "We brought him to a clinic in Moscow.

"It was simply unbelievable. He doesn't react when we call to him."
Medics gave him clothes and said that he sprang down the corridor,
bursting into his room and devouring his food like an animal.

His nails on his feet were like claws.

After 24 hours he had evaded security men at the clinic and escaped. He
is now believed to be on the loose in Moscow region.

"We didn't even manage to complete the proper medical checks. We only
succeeded in giving him a shower, cutting his nails and took some blood
and other tests," said a doctor.

"It's quite possible he is a dangerous with psychological problems but
also a source of viruses and infections."